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Young students who are struggling with reading need a strong foundation in decoding skills. The need for strong decoding skills is particularly true for students facing multiple risk factors. A robust research base exists for interventions that improve decoding skills, but that research base extends minimally to students facing several risk factors. We used a multiple-probe across behaviors design to evaluate the impact of a multi-component reading intervention on the decoding skills of four first grade students. During the multi-component intervention, students received several opportunities to construct, deconstruct, write, and read target words from different word families. Results were indicative of a functional relation between the intervention and improvements in word reading. This effect was replicated across all four study participants. Participants reported the intervention had high acceptability. Practical implications and directions for future research are discussed.

This study examined reading tutors' interpretation of reading progress-monitoring graphs. A think-aloud procedure was used to evaluate tutors at two points in time, before and after a year of service as an AmeriCorps reading tutor. During their service, the reading tutors received extensive training and ongoing coaching. Descriptive results showed a positive change from the Time 1--think-aloud (pretest) to the Time 2--think aloud (posttest). There were statistically significant changes from Time 1 to Time 2 for the majority of graph interpretation variables measured. Data suggest that the right type of support and training may serve to enable reading tutors to develop the skills to contribute to data-based decision-making within multitiered systems.

Vocabulary skills are important for overall reading competence, but vocabulary assessment approaches that inform instructional decision-making and are sensitive to improvement are limited. This article describes a process for developing vocabulary measures designed to facilitate data-driven decision-making for kindergarten and first-grade students who are at risk in vocabulary. A pilot study suggested the measures could be administered and scored with fidelity, and also produced promising data for indices of reliability, criterion-related validity, and sensitivity to growth, particularly for a rating-based scoring metric. Implications and considerations for developing instructionally relevant vocabulary measures are discussed.

This study examined spring literacy scores among at-risk prekindergarten students exposed to supplemental support solely in literacy or a combination of literacy and math. Propensity scores were used to match students receiving combined support (n = 39) with an equivalent number of students receiving only literacy tutoring. Students were matched using fall math scores and fall literacy scores. After confirming baseline equivalence, we used a multilevel model to evaluate the association between support type and spring literacy scores, controlling for fall literacy scores, fall numeracy scores, and the total number of intervention sessions completed. In addition to a significant and positive association between fall and spring scores, students who received support in both literacy and math scored significantly better on the spring literacy assessment. More specifically, participating in both literacy and math support was associated with a 23.81 increase in spring literacy scores relative to participating in literacy support alone, explaining 5% of the student-level variance.

We used triannual reading curriculum-based measurement of oral reading fluency data from 11,834 U.S. students in Grades 2 and 3 enrolled in an evidence-based Tier 2 reading intervention program (Reading Corps) to investigate the extent to which family involvement in the intervention might buffer against a negative effect of lower intervention dosage. The relation between family involvement in Reading Corps and growth in oral reading fluency was stronger when students spent fewer hours in tutoring, suggesting that family involvement in tiered reading intervention can compensate for receiving less intervention dosage. There was noticeable variation in this effect across tutors, suggestive of tutor-level heterogeneity of this relation. The relation between sending family engagement materials to families and the materials that are returned to tutors also substantially varied across tutors. We discuss findings in terms practical significance for school-based academic intervention systems. We highlight limitations and opportunities for future directions as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although it is common for researchers to assess implementation fidelity (IF) within the context of math intervention, IF assessments are often restricted to intervention adherence. Further, the degree to which IF influences observed outcomes is commonly ignored. The current study examined the relationship between three aspects of IF and the math performance of 1,340 grade 4 through 8 students who participated in an evidence-based math intervention. A series of multilevel regression models were fit to the data, including a final model with an indicator of intervention adherence, intervention delivery quality, and intervention engagement. A significant and positive association was observed between students' math performance and intervention engagement; however, a similar relationship was not observed when examining the impact of adherence and the quality of intervention delivery on students' math performance. Results are discussed in the context of implementation research for educational interventions.

Much is known about the role of vocabulary in reading and the instructional procedures that improve vocabulary. Relatively less is known about feasible approaches to implement vocabulary interventions for struggling readers within tiered frameworks. The current study randomly assigned at-risk kindergarten and first-grade students to a vocabulary intervention that was implemented by noneducator AmeriCorps interventionists from local school communities. Analyses showed that kindergarten students assigned to intervention showed significantly greater improvement on a researcher-developed measure of vocabulary knowledge but not on a distal vocabulary measure. Significant findings were not observed within first grade. Results are discussed in terms of implications and future research for vocabulary interventions within tiered frameworks.

Data from a large-scale math intervention program were used to evaluate the degree to which implementation fidelity (IF) and interventionist content knowledge were associated with student outcomes. Data were available for 33 interventionists serving 658 students in Grades 4-6 across one school year. A series of multilevel models were fit to the data to evaluate the impact of procedural IF and interventionists' math content knowledge on students' postintervention achievement, controlling for preintervention achievement and intervention dosage. Higher student posttest scores were observed for interventionists with an average fidelity rating of 95% or greater (ß = 0.15); however, no effects on students' math achievement scores were observed for interventionist content knowledge. Adding IF and a measure of interventionist content knowledge to the model explained a statistically significant amount of variance in growth estimates attributable to interventionists (15%). Results highlight the potential importance of ongoing evaluation and remediation of IF in the context of standardized supplemental intervention in math, while also providing some evidence that higher levels of content knowledge may not translate into greater impact in a standard-protocol intervention setting. Results suggest a need for more research examining characteristics of interventionists and aspects of implementation that may account for variance in student outcomes.

Evidence-based interventions exist for improving multiple fundamental math competencies, but delivering interventions with fidelity and within a data-driven, tiered framework is a practical challenge faced by most schools. The current study evaluated a math intervention program delivered with community-based resources via AmeriCorps. At the beginning of the school year, students in Grades 4-8 (n = 550) were randomly assigned to receive math support via the program or to a waitlist control group. Outcomes were measured with a broad-based assessment of math achievement in the winter. Results from intent-to-treat analyses showed a significant and positive effect (d = 0.17) for the program that increased slightly under optimal dosage conditions (d = 0.24). The observed results extend existing literature on math interventions in schools by illustrating the potential for partnerships between community-based organizations and schools to improve outcomes for at-risk students.

Student response to instruction is a key piece of information that school psychologists use to make instructional decisions. Curriculum-based measures (CBMs) are the most commonly used and researched family of academic progress-monitoring assessments. There are a variety of reading CBMs that differ in the type and specificity of skills they assess. The purpose of this study was to determine the degree to which the CBM of oral reading (CBM-R) progress-monitoring data differed from nonsense-word fluency (NWF) progress-monitoring data in the presence of a common intervention. We used multivariate multilevel modeling to compare growth trajectories from CBM-R and NWF progress-monitoring data from a geographically diverse sample of 3,000 1st-grade students receiving Tier-2 phonics interventions. We also evaluated differences in sensitivity to improvement and reliability of improvement from each measure. Improvement on CBM-R was statistically, but not practically, significantly greater than NWF. Although CBM-R was not as direct a measure of decoding, it still captured student response to phonics instruction similarly to NWF. NWF demonstrated slightly better sensitivity to growth, but CBM-R yielded more reliable growth estimates.

School psychologists regularly use decision rules to interpret student response to intervention in reading. Recent research suggests that the accuracy of those decision rules depends on the duration of progress monitoring, the number of observations available, and the amount of measurement error present. In this study, we extended existing research to evaluate the influence of a student's initial level of performance, goal line type, and decision rule type on the accuracy of interpretations of progress monitoring data. Normative goal lines performed best for students scoring far below benchmark at the beginning of the year, while goal lines based upon a spring benchmark score were appropriate for students performing just below expectations at the beginning of the year. The data point rule performed poorly across all progress monitoring conditions, while comparing the median of the 3 most recent observations to a goal line performed similarly to the trend line rule.

Relatively little is known regarding post-intervention reading fluency outcomes for English learners (ELs) in comparison with non-EL peers, yet educators must be prepared to sustain growth for all students transitioning to less-intensive tiers of support. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether EL status moderated post-intervention maintenance effects among U.S. second- and third-grade students who transitioned back to Tier 1 instruction only due to successful performance during a Tier 2 reading fluency intervention. Piecewise multi-level models were estimated to address whether EL status uniquely predicted intervention growth patterns and the extent to which these patterns were maintained over a 12- to 13-week post-intervention period. Reading fluency scores were similar between EL and non-EL students prior to the start of and during the intervention, and all students' performance decreased slightly immediately after support ceased. Regardless of grade level or EL status, post-intervention fluency gains generally remained smaller than those observed during intervention meriting attention to individual- and systems-level instructional considerations for ensuring continued growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The accuracy of decision rules for progress monitoring data is influenced by multiple factors. This study examined the accuracy of decision rule recommendations with over 4,500 second-and third-grade students receiving a tier II reading intervention program. The sensitivity and specificity of three decision rule recommendations for predicting year-end spring benchmark targets was evaluated over different data collection durations under good and poor dataset conditions. Across grade level and dataset quality, the sensitivity of decisions made using trend lines and the median of recent data points tended to improve to acceptable levels after 18 weeks. Specificity tended to decrease around that same time but was less pronounced with the median decision rule method. Limitations and directions for future research are discussed.

One consideration for selecting progress monitoring tools is the reliability in which the instrument measures student response to instruction. Researchers and vendors establish reliability of growth using two analytic methods: (a) calculating slopes to even and odd observations for each student and correlating the resulting slopes (split-half), and (b) estimating a multilevel model and computing the ratio between true and observed variance in growth estimates. It is unclear whether reliability estimates from either analytic method systematically differ. Therefore, it is also unclear whether recommendations regarding the requisite length of time to collect data to achieve sufficient levels of reliability would vary based on the analytic method used to calculate coefficients. Results from this study indicate that the multilevel method yielded systematically higher reliability estimates compared with the split-half method. Bootstrapping confirmed that differences were statistically significant. Researchers and practitioners should be aware that split-half and multilevel reliability estimates are not interchangeable and recommendations regarding the frequency and duration educators should follow when collecting data may depend on the manner in which reliability is estimated.

In the present study, we evaluated the number of attempts required to master specific subskills for working with whole and rational numbers among students at risk for math difficulties. Participants included a subset of students in grades four through eight receiving supplemental math support. Mastery--defined as 85% correct on short tests--was assessed following instruction for each subskill. Using survival analysis, we evaluated the number of attempts required to reach a 0.50 and a 0.90 probability of mastery on each subskill. The number of required attempts varied across subskills, with many subskills requiring more than one attempt to demonstrate mastery. Further, some of the most difficult content was aligned with curricular standards below students' grade level. Thus, among students identified for supplemental support, it may be worthwhile to remediate select subskills that fall outside of the grade-level curriculum before providing additional instruction on grade-level content. Implications for math subskill assessment and remediation are discussed along with limitations and directions for future research.

The current study determined growth patterns during an 8-week writing intervention and then examined the association between growth pattern and students' initial skills as determined by instructional-level data. One hundred forty-seven first-grade students struggling with early literacy skills received a writing intervention at one of two tiers of support and completed progress assessments at regular intervals. Results indicated that students followed more than one type of growth pattern. A moderate correspondence was found between growth pattern and instructional-level data. Current results are contextualized within previous research. Implications for adapting writing interventions based on student data and theoretical models of writing development are discussed.

The amount of information that students successfully learn and later recall from each intervention session is limited and is called the acquisition rate (AR). Research has consistently supported the effects of modifying intervention set sizes with AR data, but research with AR is in its infancy. The current study compared the relationship between AR while learning words with working memory, short-term memory, and reading skills. Participants were 52 fourth- and fifth-grade students with and without learning disabilities (LDs). Working memory (r = 0.34), short-term memory (r = 0.41), and word reading skills (r = 0.57) all moderately correlated with AR, but word reading skills accounted for 32% of the variance and the other two scores added little unique variance. The corrected correlation coefficients were higher for the word reading with AR than with any other variable and were essentially equal for both groups (r = 0.73 for average readers and r = 0.75 for students with an LD in reading). Thus, the data not only support the validity of making decisions with AR data but also suggest that AR is more consistent with a skill-by-treatment interaction framework than an aptitude-by-treatment interaction approach. Potential applications, directions for future research, and limitations are discussed.

Recent simulations suggest that trend line decision rules applied to curriculum-based measurement of reading progress monitoring data may lead to inaccurate interpretations unless data are collected for upward of 3 months. The authors of those studies did not manipulate goal line slope or account for a student's level of initial performance when evaluating the accuracy of progress monitoring decisions. We explored how long progress needs to be monitored before ineffective interventions can be accurately identified using actual data. We calculated classification accuracy statistics to evaluate the extent to which recommendations from three common and two novel decision rules correctly predicted spring performance across six levels of duration (8, 10, . . . 18 weeks) and two goal types (normative and default spring benchmark). Comparing the median of the last three observations as well as current trend with expected performance at a given week consistently yielded higher positive agreement rates than data point or prediction-based decision rules. Decision rule performance improved as duration increased, but a point of diminishing returns was observed. Decisions based on normative goals yielded consistently higher chance-corrected agreement outcomes.

Computer adaptive tests (CATs) hold promise to monitor student progress within multitiered systems of support. However, the relationship between how long and how often data are collected and the technical adequacy of growth estimates from CATs has not been explored. Given CAT administration times, it is important to identify optimal data collection schedules to minimize missed instructional time. We used simulation methodology to investigate how the duration and frequency of data collection influenced the reliability, validity, and precision of growth estimates from a math CAT. A progress monitoring dataset of 746 Grade 4, 664 Grade 5, and 400 Grade 6 students from 40 schools in the upper Midwest was used to generate model parameters. Across grades, 53% of students were female and 53% were White. Grade level was not as influential as the duration and frequency of data collection on the technical adequacy of growth estimates. Low-stakes decisions were possible after 14-18 weeks when data were collected weekly (420-540 min of assessment), 20-24 weeks when collected every other week (300-360 min of assessment), and 20-28 weeks (150-210 min of assessment) when data were collected once a month, depending on student grade level. The validity and precision of growth estimates improved when the duration and frequency of progress monitoring increased. Given the amount of time required to obtain technically adequate growth estimates in the present study, results highlight the importance of weighing the potential costs of missed instructional time relative to other types of assessments, such as curriculum-based measures. Implications for practice, research, as well as future directions are also discussed.

Although extensive research exists on the use of curriculum-based measures for progress monitoring, little is known about using computer adaptive tests (CATs) for progress-monitoring purposes. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of the frequency of data collection on individual and group growth estimates using a CAT. Data were available for 278 fourth- and fifth-grade students. Growth estimates were obtained when five, three, and two data collections were available across 18 weeks. Data were analyzed by grade to evaluate any observed differences in growth. Further, root mean square error values were obtained to evaluate differences in individual student growth estimates across data collection schedules. Group-level estimates of growth did not differ across data collection schedules; however, growth estimates for individual students varied across the different schedules of data collection. Implications for using CATs to monitor student progress at the individual or group level are discussed.

Achievement disparities between American Indian students and non-American Indian peers are persistent and well documented. Student engagement is a promising target for intervention given its relation to academic achievement. This study investigated the relation between specific teacher practices (opportunities to respond [OTRs], praise, and reprimands) and classroom on-task behavior in an urban, public K-8 school that serves primarily American Indian students. OTRs and praise were positively associated with student on-task behavior, whereas reprimands were negatively associated with on-task behavior. Results from multilevel logistic regression indicated that OTRs significantly increased the likelihood that a classroom was highly on-task, whereas the reprimands significantly decreased the likelihood. Praise did not have a significant effect after controlling for the other variables in the model. Results are interpreted in a context of evidence-based instructional practices for increasing OTRs and praise, decreasing reprimands, and ultimately enhancing on-task behavior in an urban classrooms serving primarily American Indian youth.

Educators use curriculum-based measurement of oral reading (CBM-R) to measure student response to instruction. Current decision-making frameworks assume students demonstrate linear growth across a school year. However, growth appears nonlinear for at least a subgroup of students. We assessed the degree to which grade two (n = 800) and grade three (n = 800) students receiving intensive interventions experienced discontinuous growth. We also explored when discontinuous growth tended to occur, and whether students improved or regressed afterward. Results indicate linear patterns were adequate for most students (80 percent). Students who showed discontinuous growth early tended to improve afterward. Conversely, students who showed discontinuous growth later tended to plateau. Findings suggest multilevel models may obscure variability in growth patterns. Practice and research implications are discussed.

The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the importance of growth in math fact skills within the context of overall math proficiency. Data for 1,493 elementary and middle school students were included for analysis. Regression models were fit to examine the relative value of math fact fluency growth, prior state test performance, and a fall administration of a computer adaptive test for predicting performance on a year-end state math test. Across all grades, the largest effect sizes were observed for student performance on the fall computer adaptive assessment (ß = 0.43-0.56). Fact fluency growth accounted for unique variance in each regression model, with the largest effect size observed for students in Grade 4 (ß = 0.20) and the smallest effect sizes observed for students in Grades 7 and 8 (ß = 0.11). Results provide insight into the potential role of math fact fluency across late elementary and middle school. In particular, the observed results indicate that math facts may retain predictive value for math proficiency despite their absence from the formal curriculum in later grades.

Within brief experimental analysis, assessment data are used to target interventions for struggling students. This use of assessment data aligns with prevention and early intervention frameworks, but popular measures are limited for this purpose because of issues with measuring improvement in short periods. Our study was a pilot comparison of two curriculum-based assessment approaches with respect to measuring growth during the context of evidence-based interventions. Results suggested that subskill mastery measures were more consistent in assessing short-term improvement than general outcome measures. Results are discussed in terms of future research to examine how assessment data are used to target interventions.

The availability of psychometrically sound and usable universal screeners is a key component to successful early identification within a response-to-intervention model. The purpose of this study was to compare the diagnostic accuracy of oral reading fluency (ORF) and an informal reading inventory for identifying students considered at risk for failing a district-wide assessment. Participants included 968 students in 2nd and 3rd grade in a rural elementary school district in Minnesota. Results showed significant correlations between ORF and informal reading inventory data and between each potential screener and the criterion measure at 2nd and 3rd grades. However, ORF demonstrated higher diagnostic accuracy for correctly identifying at-risk students and resulted in 80% correct classification compared to 54% for the reading inventory data. We discuss implications for practice and directions for future research.

The instructional hierarchy offers a useful framework for targeting academic interventions. Within this framework, the accuracy with which a student reads might function as an indicator that the student should receive an intervention that focuses either on accuracy or on fluency. The current study examined whether the instructional level for reading (93%-97% of words read correctly) could be used to target interventions that first facilitated accurate responding and subsequently facilitated faster rates of fluency growth. Each of 3 third-grade students had faster growth rates in the second phase of a fluency-focused reading intervention following an intervention that resulted in the students reading at least 93% of the words correctly. We discuss implications and limitations of the current study for applying the instructional hierarchy and the instructional level to target reading interventions.

Meta-analytic research is an effective method for synthesizing existing research and for informing practice and policy. Hattie (2009) suggested that meta-analytic procedures could be employed to existing meta-analyses to create a mega-analysis. The current mega-analysis examined a sample of 47 meta-analyses according to the "School Psychology: A Blueprint for Training and Practice III domains" (Ysseldyke et al., 2006), tiered level of support, and grade level. Findings support the effectiveness of school psychology services across the Blueprint domains, tiered levels of support, and grade level. However, the effect size was smallest for systems interventions (median d = 0.15), and there was limited research regarding the effect of assessment data on student outcomes.

Students' poor performance on national assessments of writing suggests that educators need effective approaches to assess and intervene with writing problems. Brief experimental analysis (BEA) has supporting evidence for identifying interventions in reading, but little research has investigated BEA with writing. Early writing is an especially important period for students, and the current study sought to extend BEA research in early writing. Results showed that BEAs for 3 first grade students identified promising writing interventions, and extended analyses showed improved performance for each student following implementation of the interventions. Implications for future research in direct assessment and intervention are discussed.

Early writing interventions can help students develop the writing skills they need to experience positive educational and postsecondary outcomes, but effective intervention requires instructionally relevant assessment data. Shapiro's curriculum-based assessment (CBA) model integrates related yet distinct CBA approaches into a model that informs intervention. Extending this model to early writing poses challenges only recently addressed by research. On the basis of a review of relevant early writing research, this article outlines an instructionally relevant assessment model for early writing. Within the proposed model, the instructional hierarchy is suggested to directly connect early writing assessment with intervention. A discussion of potential limitations as well as future directions for research is included.

The current study examined the relationship between oral reading fluency (ORF) and reading comprehension for students in second grade. A total of 84 participants were randomly assigned to one of four conditions that involved reading a grade-appropriate passage with either 0%, 10%, 20%, or 30% scrambled words and answering subsequent comprehension questions. The correlation coefficient between ORF and the number of comprehension questions correctly answered was r = 0.54. Receiver operating characteristics were then used to empirically derive a minimum ORF score necessary for comprehension, indicating that when these students read 63 words correct per minute they successfully comprehended what they read. Finally, the diagnostic accuracy of the derived criterion of 63 words read correctly per minute was tested and resulted in overall correct classification of 0.80. (Contains 2 tables.)

The instructional level is helpful when identifying an intervention for math or reading, but researchers have yet to investigate whether the instructional-level concept can be applied to early writing. The purpose of this study was to replicate and extend previous research by examining technical features of potential instructional-level criteria for writing. Weekly writing performance was assessed with 85 first-graders over 12 weeks using Picture-Word and Sentence Copying prompts. Data from the students with the highest slopes were used to derive instructional level criteria. Several scoring procedures across Picture-Word and Sentence Copying prompts produced reliable alternate-form correlations and statistically significant relationships with a standardized writing assessment. Determining an instructional level in writing appears feasible; however, further research is needed to examine the instructional utility of this approach. (Contains 4 tables.)

Many students struggle with writing, which impacts their school and lifelong success, but early identification and intervention can help prevent long-term writing problems. Reliable and valid assessment tools are needed for early identification of struggling writers, as well as to monitor their progress and evaluate the effects of early intervention. Curriculum-Based Measurement (CBM) offers one research-based approach to monitoring students' beginning writing progress. In this article, we describe CBM progress monitoring tools for beginning writers, including an overview of the research, a description of some of the promising tools, and a case example of how the tools might be used for progress monitoring. (Contains 3 figures.)

Reading instruction for middle- and high-school students is focused on vocabulary and comprehension, yet research suggests that comprehension skills among these students are alarmingly low. Small-group reading interventions are becoming more prevalent in schools, but there are few studies regarding small-group reading comprehension interventions. The current study compared the effectiveness and efficiency of two evidence-based small-group interventions for struggling eighth-grade readers. All participants received a text previewing comprehension strategy and a keyword preteaching strategy in counterbalanced order. Results suggested similar effectiveness between the two strategies but efficiency greatly favored the keyword strategy. Directions for future research are included. (Contains 1 table.)

System-wide practices in schools should diminish the occurrence of children's problem behavior that is deleterious to academic achievement. The current study examined the relationship between variables that affect classroom behavior and observed behavior in schools with and without a theoretically based character education program. Observational data from 12 elementary schools compared control and treatment conditions on classroom disruption, and examined the influences of class size and percentage of students receiving a free or reduced price lunch (FRL). Results showed a weaker relationship between class size, FRL, and behavior problems within the character education schools than in control schools and that the character education program may have had a stronger influence in schools with a high percentage of students eligible for FRL. (Contains 5 tables.)

Academic tasks that include easy responses increase the probability that less preferred and/or more challenging tasks will be performed. The current study applied the process of arranging easier stimuli within reading word lists with behavioral momentum and an interspersal technique. We hypothesized that the behavioral momentum condition, which placed a series of easier words at the beginning of a reading word list task, would result in greater reading fluency for word lists, and that the interspersal condition, which interspersed easier words into a word list, would result in higher fluency for the target words. Fourth-grade students (n = 97) were randomly assigned to the behavior momentum, interspersal, or control condition. The results indicated that the participants assigned to the behavioral momentum condition read significantly more words correctly per minute than the participants assigned to the control condition (d = 0.70). No statistically significant differences were observed between the remaining conditions.

The creation of the Scottish Parliament provided Scottish citizens with an additional layer of politicians to represent them. But to whom do constituents turn when seeking help with a problem—councillors, MSPs or MPs? We assess how partisanship, national identity and shared competences affect public perceptions of the governing responsibilities of the UK Parliament, Scottish Parliament and local councils. We find that an individual's national identity considerably affects perceptions of the political powers delegated to Scottish political institutions. We conclude by considering the implications for efforts to further devolve powers to the devolved legislatures in the UK. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]